Let's visit the mouse party and see how them drugs work on your brains.

Tolkien on Beowulf

Found this nice passage in an essay at Salon.com about how much the new Beowulf movie sucks.

"It is, Tolkien writes, not a primitive poem, but a late one. The pagan world is already past, but the poet still celebrates its vanished power. The fact that a poem written more than a thousand years ago was itself looking back at a lost world gives the poem an uncanny double resonance to the modern reader: "If the funeral of Beowulf moved once like the echo of an ancient dirge, far-off and hopeless, it is to us as a memory brought over the hills, an echo of an echo.""

More Youtube Fun

I can't remember if I have already linked to this or not so I'll embed it so at least it'll be slightly different if I am repeating myself. I present to you Eddie Izzard's take on Darth Vader visiting the Death Star's cafeteria with Lego animation. Don't you just love the internets? It may be all tubes but there's cool stuff out there.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Is this really necessary?

I think it's time for editors at book publishers to really do some self examination. Check out the blurb on the inside flap for the recent book in Jennifer Chiaverini's "Elm Creek Quilts" series. It's taken from the Library Journal: "a series that neatly stitches together social drama and the art of quilting." Yikes. I know quilting is one of those New Big Things. I also know that every NBT requires several writers to pen digest sized novels for the women of this country to devour, whether it be Christmas novels or human dramas set around book clubs, but, c'mon, the human drama set around quilting? Not just one novel, but a series? I can only surmise that the women of this country and not getting enough attention at home from their men. That's the only way crap like this could end up being read.

Thankfully, it doesn't come up much in polite conversation. Not once, while playing Project Gotham 4 with a couple of guys from the British Isles has one of them ever said, "Say bloke, what's up with the women in the United States and all the garbage they read for entertainment?" What could my answer be? Could I say to a foreigner in a online game lobby that I think that the women of the United States are not getting enough action at home? Can I betray my county in that way? I don't think I could. I'd just have to say, without laughing, "No way, mate, books like The Bridges of Madison County are great literature. And that book was based on a true story, by the way" and leave it at that.

After staying away from movie theaters for a couple of months, Melanie and I decided that we would take advantage of a few days off and go see a couple of films. We (mostly me) were intrigued by the newest movie based on a Stephen King story, The Mist. Our early consensus was a 6 out of 10. I'm going to leave it at 6 just for the performance by Marcia Gay Harden. I have never wanted a character in a horror movie to die so much. It's a movie full of cliches, unfortunately. I expected more by the guy that directed The Shawshank Redemption. How could you not?

The second movie we saw was No Country for Old Men. You can't go wrong with the Coen brothers. Good dialog delivered by well-cast actors, great acting and excellent cinematography. I didn't want to see two average movies during my long weekend.

I just got a phone call transfered from the circulation department. On the phone was someone who wanted me to place an interlibrary loan on a book that we don't have. In fact he was mortified to his soul that we didn't have this book. He said not having this book was like not having Moby Dick or The Grapes of Wrath. I ask him the title of the book, expecting him to ask for an play written in Ancient Greek or the letters of some Roman senator or maybe the circulation person that looked for the book for him in the catalog just didn't do a proper search. So, I am prepared to be shocked (not really) when I hear of the classic book we don't have. The book is.............................................a Photoshop tutorial by Scott Kelby. Not only that, he lives in Utah, owns the book (it's too heavy to carry on an airplane) and wants us to place an interlibrary loan so it will be here waiting for him on Monday, November 19th. Those of you not in the library field may not know that interlibrary loans take a week to three weeks to show up. Sometimes it's really hard not to laugh on the telephone at this job.

Here is a nice blog entry on the similarity between the strategy of those pushing ID and those pushing a conservative agenda. You could probably substitute the push for the Iraq war for the push for privatizing social security and still have a nice parallel.

I have to wonder, is it really that hard to set a building up so when it gets warmer than average outside during the fall and winter so that the building does not then turn into an oven? How long as air conditioning existed? This problem hasn't been solved yet? Does it require a technician to flip the switch over from heat to cool? Why has no one in maintenance even been to our library yet? Ridiculous.

So, last night my plan was to clean up my room a bit, work on some freelance research, read and go to bed. I spent the first 45 minutes of that time trying to get my computer to work. Once the bios stopped coming up and I smelled something burning I quit. I think the mother board may be literally fried. No big deal, really. It was an inherited computer and I've been using it for several years now. Time for a new one anyway. Wendell's computer is in the front room so I can use that one when I need to checks my emails.

I did clean my room up, did do some reading, didn't work on any of the research. Ah well, I don't have much left to do anyway. I think. I'm new at this freelance stuff. But I'm enjoying it. Sifting through the vertical files and the Charlotte Observer archives at the Main Library is fun. Hands on history.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory

I don't remember if I have posted this before but if you haven't seen this comic concerning GIFT then prepare for hilarity. You know, I think I may have linked to that comic before but it's worth seeing one more time. Playing Halo online over the last couple of years has proven to me just how accurate this comic is.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

I'm standing in your backyard, selling your home

This morning was really cool. I went for a nice long walk and relaxed for a bit and then as I was leaving for work I saw a tent sent up in my backyard and some guy in a white shirt doing all he could to ensure he eventually runs off every current resident of Colonial Park Apartments. Yes, the forward march of progress continues with the transformation of Colonial Park to Selwyn Commons.

This is taken from my kitchen. The guy running us all off is on the left selling his ass off.

Check out his form! How could you not by an overpriced condo from this man?

Here is a more distant shot so you can see how they spared no expense for today's open house.

Remember how one of my favorite aspects of living at Colonial Park was the grove of trees that bordered my backyard. Those building the condos next door are raping the shit out of the trees.

Monday, November 05, 2007

Good sports watching

Yesterday, like the rest of the country, I watched the Patriots play the Colts in a professional football game. Unlike many alleged big football games this one was actually worth watching. It was one of those games that no one in the world could predict what would happen and the outcome of the game hinged on a few key plays. Essentially you had two excellent teams that you just couldn't allow to have too many chances to beat you. Because they will beat you. This time it was the Patriots, led by Brady that came out on top. The next time these two teams meet it could go either way again. It was just a couple of hours of good, hard hitting football. The exact opposite of my style of play when I roamed this field.

Rockingham and Arca

I saw today that ARCA has officially announced that they will be racing at Rockingham this coming May. Not only will they be racing there they will be running a 500 mile race and it will bear the name of the original NASCAR race that ran at "The Rock" back in the day, The Carolina 500. I'm going. Who wants to go?

That track has always been special to me. The spring race there back in 1992 was the last thing my Stepdad and I did together before he died. I want to go back and see people turn left at Rockingham again.

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Howdy

Gee, I bet you are getting tired of of this blog since most of the posts are political in nature. And by politics I mean calling our president an asshole and trying to convince the world that Giuliani would be worse. Ten people a day come to this blog and I'm pretty sure I am preaching to the choir for the most part. The people that really need to be reached are sitting at home watching Fox "News" and CNN. They ain't reading this blog.

News type stuff

I assume many of you know that the apartment complex I live in is being sold to be turned into condos. So we is outta here. For the first time in 11 years I am moving. Technically, Wendell and I moved last winter but we only moved into the building next door so I don't really count it. This time, though, we are moving about one mile away and we are moving into a house. It is a four bedroom house and four of us are moving in. They are Wendell (who didn't really believe the place was being sold until he saw an article in the Charlotte Observer about the sale even though the property manager refused to give us a new lease, surveyors came through and a sign was posted at the entrance advertising the presale of condos. Some people need real proof, I guess), Chris B. (also known as "the Chris that says 'fuck' all the time) and Melanie. Melanie and I will be sharing a room because we are a couple and decided to see if we can create a life together. I hope you weren't drinking something when you read that. Send the cleaning bill to me. She's an awesome chick. She taught me how to enjoy hummus.

We are moving on December 1st and we are condensing three households into one. Chris and Mel are a little worried about the move but those two don't really have all that much stuff. They both live in single bedroom apartments and neither one of them is a packrat. The trouble is going to come when we try to find a place for all of Wendell's shit. He's like a turtle and not only carries his house on his back but enough stuff to pretty much fill a house. This next month is going to rock.

Halo 3

Yup, still playing Halo 3. Check out this screenshot. You can see me in the background to the lower left with a rocket launcher on my shoulder. I am moving right to left, a prisoner of inertia after entering a elevator that launches you across the map. You can see the trail of smoke that starts at the spot I shot a rocket. In the bottom right corner you can see the two opponents I just blew the hell up. I dig Halo, man.

I case you are wondering in the ranked multiplayer games I have played I have racked up 1383 kills. I have died 1442 times. That is a kill/death ratio of .96 Also 27.5% of my kills have come by using the assault rifle and 23.5% have come by using the melee or "beat down" attack. Those two method are far and away the top two ways I whack people at Halo. Coming in at a distant third is the grenade attack: 9.1%

My absolute favorite way to kill people is with the shoulder mounted laser and I have used it .87% of the time. I love the laser but it's hard to use. It takes about four seconds to charge up and as soon as it hits full charge it shoots. It's challenging to find the right spot to use the laser because you are vulnerable to attack as it charges up. Once you get it charged up and you have the sight on some poor sucker it is one shot, one kill. It's a thing of beauty.

There, that was more of an old skool Ed type of post. Sorry for all the Bush stuff but the lying son of a bitch pisses me off to no end.

I can't believe this fear mongering lying piece of sewage is my president. We are not at war. Terrorism is all about intelligence and law enforcement. Honestly, are people still buying this crap? Do they not see he is repeating the same lies of the Vietnam era? Incredible.